Upon invoking his high-tier resonant art, the screaming veil of blood convulsed, and from it, hundreds of colossal crimson hands erupted, stretching as far as the eye could see.
They descended upon the battlefield with open palms, slowly at first like judgment being passed, then faster.
Below, Rhesa stood her ground. She braced herself, raised her longsword toward the encroaching hands, and called out in a commanding voice, "Rain of Penitence."
At her call, the archer golem to her left stirred, its eyes flaring with radiant gold. It lifted its bow, within which rested a gleaming javelin of condensed metal.
At the same time, the vast swarm of metallic fragments that had been hovering in the air around it began to draw together, fusing midair, stacking, locking, and reshaping until dozens of colossal javelins hovered in formation, each glowing faintly with the heat of creation.
Then the archer golem fired its javelin and as soon as it did, all the javelins hovering in the air above followed.
Shockwaves tore through the battlefield, and one by one, the descending hands were pierced mid-fall. Their massive crimson palms ruptured as molten metal punched through them, raining steaming gore across the earth.
…But it wasn't enough.
Rhesa gritted her teeth and uttered another command. "Warden's Sentence!"
The towering Knight Warden in front of her, surged forward like a cathedral of metal in motion. With each step, the ground trembled beneath its weight.
As it charged, its lance twisted and reshaped in real time until it reforged itself into a colossal blade. Then the warden leapt, and with one brutal sweep, tore through the cluster of descending hands. Fingers the size of trees spiraled down, severed midair like broken marble columns.
The knight landed hard, then pointed its massive sword at Anele's small frame as if making a declaration.
Above, Anele grinned and his eyes gleamed with something sharp and satisfied. He raised his hand, fingers curling slightly, as if tugging at something invisible just beyond the veil, then whispered another Art:
"Vipers of the Vein."
Just like before, the veil above shuddered violently, as if in pain, its screaming faces twisting and warping. Then the fabric tore open, and three ugly gargantuan serpents descended through the wound. They slithered downward, each a river of blood made flesh. Their long bodies coiled through the air with unnatural speed, twisting and snapping with fluid precision.
Their heads were malformed, draconic things without eyes, and their mouths were wide, filled with fangs that glistened like wet swords. One hissed, and it didn't sound like an animal. Instead it sounded like a choir of people crying for help.
Below, the Knight Warden roared, a metallic bellow that split the air, and charged at the central serpent.
But the other two serpents didn't slow. They veered straight for Rhesa.
Rhesa raised her longsword high, turned it, and slammed it into the ground before calling out her defensive Art.
"Warden's Pillar!"
On her right, the tank golem responded at once, dragging its colossal shield across the shattered field. With a deafening clang, it slammed the shield into the ground, anchoring it like a barricade between Rhesa and the serpents.
At that moment, the storm of metallic fragments suspended in the air shot toward the shield, and one by one, they stacked, fused, and folded into it. Plate after plate locked into place until the construct towered over and around Rhesa like a colossal fortress.
Then as the final plate sealed into position, the two blood-drenched monsters suddenly slammed into the fortress like meteors, their shrieks splitting the air.
The iron wall groaned but held. Then at that moment, Rhesa pulled her sword free from the ground, and as she did, spikes burst outward from the walls, impaling both serpents before they could regain balance.
Their bodies twisted violently as blood gushed in thick waves from the wounds. They screamed for a moment before falling silent, their forms collapsing and sliding down the walls like hunted prey, leaving steaming trails of gore behind.
Behind the structure, Rhesa swayed from exhaustion, yet she struggled to keep her footing until the last serpent was destroyed.
She looked up… just in time to see the Knight Warden bring its blade crashing down on the last serpent in a clean cleave. The serpent split like wet paper, blood erupting like a broken dam before Its body unraveled and dissolved.
For a moment, silence settled over the battlefield.
Then… Rhesa dropped to one knee, planting her sword into the ground for support as her vision blurred and her lungs burned, a clear sign she was running out of Vira.
'Dammit! dammit! dammit!'
Panic crept in as she realized just how bad things had become.
Her Throne of the Iron Gospel was powerful, but every second it stood, it drained her Vira. And now, she was almost running low.
Worse still, Anele was the Kyrios of the Vein. Even the smallest scratch could become a death sentence in his domain, which was why she could not attack him herself and had to rely on large techniques for both offense and defense, since she could not afford to be cut and made to bleed.
'I'll have to keep depending on the wardens.'
She clenched her fists and forced herself upright, staggering through the exhaustion. She had no other options. As long as Anele remained and she was not dead, she would continue fighting.
***
Inside the Warden's Carapace, time seemed to pass by really slowly.
The air had grown thick and heavy with dust, and hairline cracks spiderwebbed along the patchwork metal walls. With each distant explosion, the entire dome groaned, and more dust rained down.
Ren sat humped on the floor in a corner with his back against the cold, rough interior. His fingers tangled in his hair as he struggled to make sense of everything that had happened up till this moment.
He had always known what a Viran was. In fact, everyone who watched the news knew. After all, they were painted as gifts from God, people born with supernatural abilities meant to help the world.
Except for those who occasionally appeared when called upon to use their powers helping humans in popular industries like healthcare and so on, thus becoming popular Virans, many of their kind never even bothered to show themselves to humans.
Due to most of the world not knowing much about them, many humans thought that their powers were just limited to simple elemental tricks, and that they probably were not too different from normal humans.
Which was why this war that was currently tearing the city apart was unthinkable.
It felt like two gods had descended, begun fighting over something ancient and unknowable, with no care for the humans crushed beneath their feet.
And yet, that wasn't the part that shattered Ren most.
'Mom…? Mom… is a Viran too? How? Since when?'
The thought felt impossible to Ren. And not only was she a Viran, but one with such a level of power the news had never shown before.
Even Simon hadn't known. That much was obvious. The look in his eyes, the mix of fear and awe and confusion, said everything.
Ren had a thousand questions, but they all came tangled.
His breath hitched as the metal dome quaked again, casting flickers of dust into the dim, copper-lit air.
He glanced up to where his father sat hunched, cradling Anya like she might fall apart if he let go for even a second. He could barely make out his father's tear streaked face in the gloom. In his hands, Anya kept trembling. Her small hands clutched her bear so tightly its seams looked ready to burst and she kept whispering the same words, over and over again, barely audible: "Is Mom okay…? Is Mom okay…?"
Simon pressed his face to her hair, voice cracking as he whispered, "She's strong."
Watching them, Ren could tell that Simon said that not for her, but for himself.
He looked down at his palms, which had been trembling ever since Anele arrived and were still shaking now.
He was still lost in his thoughts when Simon's cracked voice pulled him back.
"Ren? Are you okay?"
Ren blinked. The question didn't feel real. Who the hell would be okay right now?
Eventually, he answered, "I… I think I am…"